Maintaining Your Bin

This section explains how to maintain your bin. Starting a new bin is going to take a lot of trial and error, but playing around will help you  achieve optimal conditions.

Here we will explain:

• What & What Not to Feed Your Bin
• How to Feed Your Bin
• Prime Conditions
• Trouble Shooting
• Pests

What & What Not to Feed Your Bin

Worm Dislikes: Your worms are pretty easy going, they love all sorts of foods. But there are definitely some foods to steer clear of such as meat, dairy, oily/ spicy/salty or vinegary foods, and foods with high acidity such as onions and lemons. Citrus peels have a thin oily layer on them called limonene, this oil makes it difficult for the worms and microbes to penetrate and can hurt the bin. The rind (inner layer of the peel) if removed from the peel breaks down quickly and easily. The meat of citrus fruits can also be added in moderation if the acidity is balanced. See “prime conditions and bin health” for further information on balancing pH levels. Avoid foods that ferment easily such as rice and barley since this encourages anaerobic conditions of a dense, mushy, and smelly environment that can be harmful to your worms. They also have trouble breaking down vegetables with a long shelf life, such as cabbages and brussel sprouts, which end up staying in the bin for sometimes as long as a few months, but this doesn’t hurt them.

Worm Likes: Use a variety of fruits and vegetables to keep a well balanced bin. Worms, like humans, will function best with a variety of foods, the more the better. Some important foods to add to your bin are: 1) newspaper (be careful with toxic incs and bleaches), cardboard, sawdust (make sure untreated), coconut coir, and hay all aid in adding airflow, works as a bulking agent, retains and controls moisture, and helps decomposition, 2) coffee grounds, sand, and sawdust all work as teeth inside the gizzard to grind up the food and make a rich worm casting, and 3) eggshells (if ground up will decompose faster) or agricultural lime work as a buffer to control the pH (acidity) of the bin, and the calcium is essential to reproduction, it also makes the skin of the worm tougher and more durable.  If you don’t eat eggs or drink coffee you may want to help your local cafes divert some of their waste from the landfill. If possible, keep some compost in a corner of your apartment in a sealed container. This way, while you are waiting for the worms to eat the food that is already in there, the new batch will have already started decomposing and the process will be faster. Make sure it is properly sealed, or else it may stink, and attract insects. It will also be easier on the worms if the food scraps are room temperature. AND most importantly do everything in moderation, for example don’t try to encourage them to eat more by throwing in 5 pounds of coffee grounds, I have heard stories of people doing this and killing the bin – coffee is very acidic and low in nutrients.

How to Feed Your Worms:   (You may need to buy some gloves or a good manicure kit!)

Step 1: Imagine your bin divided into 4 sections, it might be helpful to write the numbers on the lid of the bin.
Step 2: Finely chop the food for faster decomposition, they can only eat what they can fit in their mouths since they have no teeth.
Step 3: Gently move the bedding away from section one so you can clearly see the bottom of the bin.
Step 4: Add the food to the bin and mix with a bit of shredded newspaper to bring some air pockets into the soil if it is too moist.
Step 5: Cover the food completely so that pests don’t have access to it.
Step 6: When you have more compost move on to section 2 of your bin, and keep this rotational cycle going until you have come back to the first section again. Do not feed the first section until all of the food for this section has been decomposed.

Prime Conditions & Bin Health

Your bin should not smell much, it should smell earthy and maybe a bit like what you just fed them. If it does smell, it may mean that you need to harvest, which is explained in the harvesting section. The depth of the soil should not be more than a few inches. If it is much deeper than this the compost will trap gas, and the excess weight will make it difficult for your worms to travel. These additions will provide airflow and keep the soil fluffy and moist. If the casting soil is deep and dense it will trap gas, and suffocate your worms. The ideal temperature is 15-25C, if it is too cold the worms will slow down their productivity, and don’t make it too hot, or you will roast them! pH levels should be between 5-9, and moisture should be around 80-90% (limits: 60-90%). To control pH make sure to add some alkaline material such as agricultural lime or eggshells which work as a buffer to neutralize the system. If you choose to add lime be sure to add the agricultural lime (calcium carbonate) and not caustic lime (sodium hydroxide) – the latter will kill your worms and everything else in the bin. Make sure the soil isn’t too compact because the worms still need oxygen. It may be beneficial to occasionally fluff up the soil with you hands by gently running your fingers through it. If the soil is too dry, add some water and maybe consider adding more food. If the soil is too wet, add some newspaper to absorb the moisture and if it is in excess,  you may need to try using a different food source, or harvesting the compost. Worst case, keep a turkey baster on hand and extract the liquid. Make sure the food is buried, or else they will be unlikely to eat it, and it is likely to attract unwanted pests. If you feel like you are producing too much organic waste, don’t overwork the worms, just start up a new bin. Your worms should be desperately trying to escape when placed in the palm of your hand, if they seem particularly lethargic, the cause is probably due to one of the factors stated above so be sure to play around until the right balance is found.

Moisture Test: Take a handful of the bin soil (make sure there are no worms in it) and squeeze it tight. You should be able to get about 3 or 4 drops out of it. This is ideal.

Trouble Shooting

Worm Disease?

 

 

Your bin may be showing signs of sick or deformed worms, this did happen in our bins and of course my first conclusion was a worm disease. But, this is not the case. In fact, I have been unable to find any evidence showing that worms are capable of contracting disease. This means that if the worms are dying, or showing signs of illness, you may need to try some new methods of composting. So what was it? In my case, the worms were being subject to something called protein poisoning. This is caused by overfeeding. Worms excrete enzymes, which aid in the breakdown of compost, making it easy for the worms to digest the food. If the worms are being overfed, the enzymes are not plentiful enough to perform their full duties for the worms, and the worms begin to eat the soft food that hasn’t been properly broken down. The food decomposes inside the worm instead of in the soil, trapping the gas inside their intestine. Over time this gas builds up until it eventually bursts, making a hole in the worms side. The before and after effect (before: bubbles under the skin, after: worms in pieces) makes them look rather deformed and sickly. So if you have this, your methods must change! It is recommended that you remove your worms, dispose of the compost soil, follow the steps to start up a bin and re-add your sick worms for a fresh start. And stop overfeeding them! Even try letting the food decompose for a while before adding it to the bin. Be careful though, if you tried starving the bin like I did and have mites, you will open the bin a few days later to the mites being completely deprived of food and attacking the worms!

I experienced something very odd, which was the main cause of the protein poisoning. For a while we fed the worms nothing but sweet potato peels. After about a month all of the excrement starting being the same colour as sweet potatoes! This meant the worms were not fully digesting the food. This was due to overfeeding. And don’t forget, just like humans, if you eat the same thing everyday you are going to get sick. Give your worms some variety for optimal conditions, and a variety for them may also be a good excuse to incorporate some new veggies into your diet. It may lead to healthier living for you too!

Pests:    I’ve Got PESTS!!!! HOW DO I DESTROY THEIR PEWNY EXISTENCE (or at least make them go away)??!!!!??

Pests are usually more bothersome to humans than they are to worms. It is normal for other organisms to live in the bin and aid in the process of decomposition. If they are doing no harm to your worms, you may just choose to leave them. In my experience, the healthier the bin – the less the pests, but some may come and can be inevitable, but here are some ways to keep their populations down:

Fruit flies: You shouldn’t have fruit flies, this probably means that you have exposed food at the surface making it easy for the flies to lay their larvae. Make sure the food is buried. If you can’t avoid them try sticky traps, and keep the bins closed, the less accessibility they have the less they will bother you. You can also set up a small jar with some apple cider vinegar in it, or any other sweet liquid. Shape a piece of paper into a cone and put it at the rim of the jar. This will attract the fruit flies and they will enter but not be able to escape.

Scatopsidae: Little black flies with clear wings that are no bigger than the tip of a pen. These guys are completely harmless and aid in decomposition. But their populations can explode quickly, so keeping them under control will be helpful for you. These guys do almost nothing but mate. Half of them are in the compost, but can hardly be seen since they blend in with the black compost. But many are on the walls and lid, and are linked tail to tail, makin’ babies. Since this is pretty much all they do, their populations grow extremely quickly. I have found the wetter the bin, the more of them there are. They are quick fliers, but tend to run slowly along the lid, especially when they are attached to a mate. I squish them. Hey, it works! For a while our populations were out of control, I used sticky pads and killed as many as I could every few days, and their populations are more than manageable now, it has shown a huge improvement. You may also consider putting some sticky traps on the walls of the bin which they can collect on, but if the bin is very moist, the sticky pads will have condensation on them, making them ineffective.

Maggots: (house flies, onion flies or other): you shouldn’t have maggots, this means you either have rotten/overly moist food, too much food, meat/dairy products, or your household might just have annoying flies. I squish em! The more you squish the less there are, and the less they reproduce. This sounds silly but if you are persistent, in my experience, it often can cure the bin completely of them.

Ants: Squish em’ – ants often send out a scout to see if the environment is suitable for a colony. My tip is if you see one ant, kill it. Often over a period of a couple weeks the colony will continuously send a few scout ants, if none return, or almost none, they will go somewhere else. Trust me this works. But you need persistence. Ant traps work too, but this is a less organic root.

Mites: There are 3 types of mites; red, brown and white. Only the red mites can be harmful to your worms, but it is difficult to tell the difference between red and brown mites. They appear as little red or white dots. The white and brown mites only eat the food and the dead worms, whereas the red mites will eat the food and the worms, whether they are alive or dead. They can also be a threat to the cocoons, which you need for baby worms. These guys are harmless to your bin if you keep your worms fed. If there is enough food for both the worms and the mites, they can live in harmony, but if there is no food the mites can eat the worms, or starve the worms by getting to the food first. Worms tend to stay at the bottom of the bin, whereas mites move where there is food. They like cantaloupe in particular. If you place cantaloupe rinds at the surface of the bin, mites should collect on them, making it easy to scrape them into the sink and wash away. I keep cantaloupe rinds in the freezer and pull out a piece or two whenever needed. You can scrape and reuse the rind until there is none left,  don’t bother wasting the delicious fruit portion on the mites as it decomposes incredibly quickly and is wasteful to the fruit and your wallet.

Pot Worms/ White Worms: These are tiny threadlike white worms that almost appear to be baby worms. You can see the difference because baby worms always have a pink hue. They are harmless and aid in decomposition. If the populations become out of control, there are a few things you can try. I have read you can soak the bin, and all of the white worms will come to the surface, but in general this is a terrible idea, because unless you have a means of evaporating the water quickly, you will surely kill your red worms in the process. Another possibility is harvesting the soil and starting the worms in a clean bin from scratch. I have also read that if a piece of damp bread is left on the surface, they will collect on it, making them easy to remove. This would probably be the easiest, and the most practical of the 3 options.

Springtails: These are tiny, white, flea-like insects that jump around, and are about the size of a pin tip. They are completely harmless to your bin, in fact they may be beneficial by aiding in faster decomposition. They often come as pests to humans, especially since they can reproduce at impressive rates. If you need to get rid of them you can try the same methods as for pot worms. (This picture is springtails with mites)

 

If you have something else, well I don’t know, incorporate these tactics, check the Internet, read some books, or give us a call for advice and good luck!